Healing Power of the Ocean

North County Times Newspaper article link

Today.  An interesting article. Very relevant.


"The first time you quit is the last time you try."

Oceanside Harbor Dredging

The cooler water yesterday helped me out overall yesterday and into this morning.  I got myself to the Pier at about 1 PM Monday.  The water was amazingly glassy and flat.  Temp 64-66 degrees, like yesterday. Waves small.  Mild current moving south.  The water is kinda' dirty because the dredging barge is now set up in the Oceanside Harbor.  That is going to keep the water lousy with silt and no visibility until they go away.  The cool water felt good today but I also went through lots of warm spots.  I got around in 31 minutes and the arc that I swam was longer than yesterday.  I started at Surfrider Way. 


"The first time you quit is the last time you try."

Quiet Sunday Pier Swim

Just a calm, low-tide swim for me today.  The water was a bit chillier, which I like.  Surfline.com has the water temp at 64-66 degrees. The air temp at my house was 90, and at the beach it was 82 degrees.  I swam north to south in 31 minutes around the pier. No visibility: 2-3 feet max.  Mild current flowing north to south. 
Pretty uneventful but satisfying Sunday swim.


"The first time you quit is the last time you try."

Tuesday Swam Alone Around the Pier...Finally

Really low tide this afternoon.  Big time gap again since I got in the water.  I'm already paying for it. Medicine on-board, TENS unit on high, back support on.  I just swam around in 28 minutes in a small chop.  Lousy visibility, small waves, very few surfers.  The water temp felt nice...let me check surfline.com now...65 degrees.  It was a little warmer outside (past the surf zone). 
I have come close to just shutting down this swim blog because of my deteriorating physical condition.  If I can just get myself out of the house and on the sand...then I can walk right in, and the buoyancy relieves pressure on the lumbar back.  I was recently told by the ortho surgeon that among other things, the disc between L3 & L4 is a BIG problem.  I want a surgery; I think they would do one fusion there, but everything is such a big friggin' process of approvals, alternatives, profits for providers, etc.  I would like more of the good nerve blocks in the lumbar area now, but I think I'm getting delayed. 
Adapting to not being able to work is extremely difficult for me. 
Things could be worse.  Check out this unfortunate fellow  http://www.ksby.com/news/surfer-badly-injured-in-eureka-shark-attack/


"The first time you quit is the last time you try."

I Got in the Water Monday After Long Layoff

 

 

I think that I've been sidelined for a good three weeks; Monday I got a Pier swim in.  Surprisingly the water is still warm at 68 degrees.  If one were just looking at the water Monday afternoon, the view was absolutely beautiful.  The ocean was glass, unbelievably glassy.  The waves were outstanding, with sets to five feet.  There was a light wind, but the appearance of the waves gave the impression of a mild offshore breeze, although I don't believe there was one.  The reason that I say this is because the tops of the breaking waves had that beautiful spray up and backward like they do in a Santa Ana condition.  Many surfers were out and they were getting repeated one-second tube rides in these waves.  I heard one surfer on the cell phone to his pal saying, "I'm just saying, if you can get out here, get out."  That says it.
Now for swimming.  In one of these photos you can see a ship that has been pumping sand from offshore to replace lost sand in the Buccaneer Beach area and north of it.  The negative effect of this pumping is that crap is stirred up from the bottom and reaches far north and south of the area being pumped.  Oceanside Pier water quality is lousy, dirty, silty, no visibility, and smells of oil and fuel.  We had this incredible scenic water yesterday but the water quality really impacted the experience negatively.  But I have to say that the glassiness was amazing for swimming.  So rare!  I actually had some concerns about being able to get out safely through the surfers strung out along the beac and the big waves crashing in.  I took five minutes or more to think about an entry spot; the surfers were getting long rides so I had to account for their potential movement as I swam through the surf zone.  I got lucky and waited for a good time to get out.  Between diving under a series of waves and swimming hard to reach oncoming waves and get under them before they broke, the surf passage was exciting.  And fifty yards back from the water one had a totally different idea of the surf conditions.  It looked so calm, sweet, and beautiful from afar; but the water had the potential to crunch you and drown you up close and inside it. 
I swam a big arc around the Pier in 32 minutes.  The exit through the surf was totally mild; I swam far south of the big waves.  Since the doctors shot up one nerve area of my back last week, I was able to run about a quarter to half mile on the beach afterward.  I did have to stop briefly four times to catch my breath but the back held up. 
I'm writing this Tuesday morning and I paid for the swim with some heavy duty neck pain and back pain after the swim and through the night.  Worth it?  Definitely!  The words below I really take to heart these past couple of weeks.


"The first time you quit is the last time you try."